Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to reduce the level of illegal immigration from Calais into the UK.

The UK and French Governments have been working closely together to address the situation in Northern France. The Joint Declaration signed by the Home Secretary and the French Interior Minister on 20 August builds on the earlier declaration of September 2014 and cements a comprehensive programme of work between our two countries. Additional French police – along with extra fencing, search dogs and other security measures provided by the UK – are bolstering security at the ports of Calais and Coquelles against clandestine activity.

The new Joint Declaration contains formalised arrangements on intelligence-sharing and prosecutions to target the organised immigration crime gangs and a new command and control centre in Calais where UK and French law enforcement agencies will co-ordinate operations. Other new measures include substantial further security and physical infrastructure improvements, extra private security personnel, around-the-clock searching, additional French mobile policing units and further joint work to return economic migrants to their home countries.

In recognition that the pressure of immigration does not begin in Calais, the Declaration sets out support to frontline EU member states in ensuring fully functioning external borders and to crack down on the organised crime gangs smuggling people into Europe. A copy of the Declaration can be found at

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/455162/Joint_declaration_20_August_2015.pdf